come back to what you know

Jae's Dream Budget: 1 cute guy = good. 2 cute guys = twice as good. mmm...

Yoinked from Male and Beautiful

Found a great blog today Underneath the Mask. Love it.

Today was Friday and, far more importantly, pay day. And considering the financial hell that was this month I am going to be on a budget as of now, so now for the boring bit!

I have been paid, after tax and student loan repayments, £1232. I have £72 from expenses and am due a refund of £62 in the next couple of days due to a cancelled set of train tickets for Birmingham. So £1366 is coming in.

Currently I have the following debts:

£1200 with Barclays Bank (overdraft no interest)
£200 with Mum
£10 plus lots with the Bank of Jim
£5 with Paul at work because I was too lazy to walk to a cash machine at lunch.

So debts = £1415

And outgoings will be:

Rent: £400
Payment for holiday: £200
Commuting to work: £66.00
Charity payments and misc: £50

£716 will be going out in total.

So I have £650 to play around with.

Easter and Jim's birthday are the unquantifibles in this budget and will have to be looked at on an adhoc basis... I am budgeting myself £100 a week with the financial week starting on a Friday. Out of this weeks I'll pay back £15 to Jim and Paul. I'm down £20 already out of frivolous magazine, croissant and curry purchasing... so I now have £65 for the next 6 days. I can do this... I can do this... I can do this...

So that leaves me £250 plus whatever I can save out of each weeks budget to buy new clothes ready for holiday, Jim's birthday present and Easter eggs for those who deserve. Debts will have to wait till June, my overdraft is officially £1100 so £100 of this budget is a little on the optimistic side... and all donations gratefully received!!!

Irelands Eurovision song for 2006 is... tedious/so last century/the best thing since Gemini?

Need to do something interesting before I run out of things to write about.

In Iraq deathsquads target gay men. With each passing day I become less persuaded (grammar is awful as always!) by the arguments of the peace activists. And totally disillusioned with the Coalition. Sometimes we forget that in between the two camps are the ordinary Iraqis trying to live their lives while their country falls down around them. Message to Elton John... charter a plane and go rescue those men!

For a few seconds last night I thought MyDeathSpace might be interesting. Of course it turned out to be totally morbid. Please do not ever let me end up on one of those pages.

The World School Photographs is totally awesome... you'll be amazed by the results!

Noah's Ark Rides Again. You've gotta love his passion. Christians really love Jesus, they just hate the idea of giving their hard earned cash to other people. Instead they build great follys.. "holy" theme parks, creationist "museums" and Arks. Not that I begrudge them... trust me, if I had £700,000 I'd wanna build something big.... but really I'm not a Christian and I just don't think it's really "Christian" to spend money like that.

Then there's the really messed up gay Christian peacemaker who went to Iraq to stop a fight against Islamist insurrectionists. I can understand the Christian part of him wanting peace... but surely the gay part should have gone "ewww... Islamists". Oh well... at least I can see some of Jesus' teachings about loving everyone and being a peacemaker in there somewhere.

Daz Sampson has begun his Eurovison promotion tour... come on UK! Love the fact that someone thought Belfast was in Ireland in the comments on that news... let's not mention that to Rev Paisley he'd have a heart attack. Hmm... anyone know his email address? ;op

The Christian Afghan Controversy goes on. It is truely amazing to think that there are still such large numbers of backward people out there who would want a man to die just because he chose one religion over the one he was "born into".

But then again there's still some people out there who want me dead just because I'm gay (hello Mr Phelps!!).

Thousands of years of civilisation... and we still hate each other. You have got to love our sheer boneheadedness.

With that in mind make it your mission to hug some bigots this year. They need the love. Now I don't mean one of those limp British hugs... I mean proper bear hugs... and get someone to take a picture and send it in...

Come on join Jae's A Hug A Bigot Campaign

So let's start this post of as I mean to go on... with my fave Eurovision winning song...



Yes Dear Constant Reader... Jae can Google Video and YouTube it with the rest of those newbie bloggers.

Finally watched Grizzly Man all the way through. Timothy Treadwell was one passionate, if messed up guy. I'm sure a lot of people agree with what one of the participants of the documentary said; he got what he deserved. I'm not one of them. I believe that it's guys like Timothy Treadwell who make our world a little more interesting. His heart was in the right place. His legacy lives on with Grizzly People.

After taking the kids home to Hemel Hempstead (where I finally saw some of the immense damage left by the Buncefield Depot fire first hand... imagine those news shots we used to see from Sarajevo... messy) we went to the cinema to see Inside Man. A good premise, good acting and good camera work. Shame about the pacing... slow enough so that I had more than enough time to work out the ending before we got there. And this is me people. It takes me many days to work out film endings normally.

Clive Owen almost made up for it...

This is my 1000th post on this blog. If this was a television show you'd need to prepare yourself for "A Best Of" compilation of clips, a fireworks display and guest appearances from people I haven't seen in five years.

But we won't have any of that. Just a thank you to everybody who has ever read this blog, who has ever linked here, and to all those special people who have allowed me (as if I gave them a choice!) to write about them...

I just want to link one old post, as a taster of what went before...

Block 33

Amazing how much your life can change in just 5 years...

I have a proposal... I am tired of using Blogger templates, but don't really have the urge to master HTML to the amount needed to properly redesign my blog. So I would love someone to design a template for me... if you're interested there's £40.00 (that's a GAZILLION dollars to any Americans reading this) through Paypal and my infinite thanks in it for you. If you are interested all I want is a template with the theme "Queer London" retaining my title and tagline... that's all I ask!!!

Now... I'm loving Sakis Rouvas, this years male Eurovision presenter and 2004 runner up (Shake It!!)...

Today's featured Eurovision act is Cyprus' Annet Aptani. This was less interesting than one dancer from the Ukraine's entry...



YUM!

Do big cats roam the UK? I'd like to think so... but then I love cryptozoology and it's all probably wishful thinking. But don't be too cynical... it's a harmless belief after all!

Talking of cynical... after a hard days work I got to Waterloo East to find the evening commute in chaos due to a security alert. After it became apparent I might be there for quite some time I caught a train to London Bridge where things were FAR worse. The platforms were ten deep with people... after getting dragged from platform to platform by some very bitter and stupid people I decided to get the tube home. That was far more pleasant. I'll never understand peoples reactions to delayed trains... anger at innocent staff members, impatience, intolerance of others and a complete lack of understanding of the big picture outside of their small, rather pointless little lives. When I saw a man shouting at some poor information desk employee I almost went over and punched him (darn my dislike of physical violence and confrontation). When I saw people standing on the wrong side of the yellow line I almost lost it again... People standing that close to the edge of the platform means the drivers have to go much more slowly, meaning your journey will take longer. And they are not going to hold a late train just for you, because there is a whole rail network to run. So stop having a go at the middle man.

I could understand peoples complaints if our train operators were totally useless but South Eastern has been one of the more competent operators in the country. We now get like one or two days of delay a month... not bad considering!

It worries me that so many stupid little people are allowed to vote,

Loadsa work at the moment so I'm a little tired when I get home so my posts are becoming very brief and to the point. Must do better!

Soooo... in Eurovision news:

The draw for vote and play order has been completed.

Hats (cowboy hats that is!) off to Germany's entry "Texas Lightning" who I may vote for just because there are just plain adorable in their outfits!

ESC-TV goes live! YAY! Ooo... doesn't the presenter look cute?

Last night I went bowling in Elephant and Castle again. Twas loads of fun, my performance wasn't great but it was far better than last week. And I was on the blokes team which meant lots of manly celebratory bundles from Scott, Paul and Peter. Which was nice. ;o)

Eurovision, bowling, Texas Lightning

Eurovision

Today's post is brought to you by Belarus' Eurovision Entry (click on the watch button on the right to be blown away!). I would be against Belarus being allowed in Eurovision, being Europe's last dictatorship, but a couple of years ago they had a really cute vote announcer. That makes it all okay. Or not. In related news I now have every Eurovision song since 1956 on my iPod. Yay!

X-Men

I am now also the proud owner of the entire X-Universe Chronology thanks to the glory that is .cbr files. This makes me very, very happy. And the movie looks good... and so does Colossus...



V For Vendetta



Last night, after a trip to Pizza Hut, Jim, Zoe, and I went to the Galleria to see V For Vendetta. This is one hell of a good movie! Stephen Fry's in it. Plus the storyline ain't too bad either! Kept me interested all the way through.

Staropramen

Jim brought me back some from Paul and Jane's. YUM!

Tags: Eurovision, V For Vendetta, X-Men, comics, beer

Vote count changes!. I don't know how I feel about it... I enjoy the vote counting being longer, it gives the awesome Terry Wogan more chance to mock the presenters.

Over the next couple of months I shall be bringing you the songs of this years Eurovision... starting with Armenia who have entered for the first time... see Andre's "Without Your Love"

Now what is it with the Nordic entries? They are either tediously boring... or rather worrying!. Only in Finland!

Eurovision

Not long to go till the big 1000! Donations in honour of this would be gratefully (very gratefully) received.

Today I went up to Birmingham with Natasha from work to meet some people who I have spent the last 8 months in daily phone contact with. I don't know if anyone else has people like this at work; people who you talk to but never see. At Three Valleys I never met those voices who I laughed and joked with. But today I finally put some names to faces.

It's funny how people are never like you expected them... the image in your head just doesn't quite match up. But I actually was fairly pleased to met everyone... it made them real and made me less likely to moan about them...

Now note to people on trains... if it says reserved... it means it's reserved.. for me. Understand? Cheers!

Zoe's staying over. Woo...

Do Buddhists Watch Telly? Who knew??

Serbia and Montenegro pull out of Eurovision... noooooooo.... their entry was cute... I'm going to sulk all the way through Eurovision this year in protest!! Unless Terry Wogan can cheer me up... which he will... :o)

Oh those Bulgarians!

O-Zone singer represents Moldova.

I love Brent Corrigan's blog (note to straight readers and those of a nervous bent... naughty but nice pics inside!). You have to really. First off there are the pictures... PHWOAH! That boy gets sexier with each post!

Then there's the writing... he seems to live one of those totally interesting lives that were meant to be blogged about. Intrigue and upset over the whole Cobra debacle. Excitement as he tries to make his own way through the world of porn. Let's face it... anyone who has been in the same room as Chi Chi needs some props! And the occasional cutesy post about his dog.

LOVE HIM!

Am I getting just a little excited about Eurovision? Answers on a comments form!

Last night I headed up out with Paul, Morgan and Ben, bowling at the Elephant and Castle. Twas loads of fun and I even came third in one game. WOO!!! ;o)

I have finally got round to watching the BBC's Making Your Mind Up. This is our UK selection process for Eurovision, the greatest single event of the year. In my opinion. I have finally listened to our winning song and I have to say it's crap. But... it was way better than any of the others so I grudgingly give it my support.. Come on Daz do it for the UK!!!

In Serbia and Montenegro the contest was a little more controversial. I'm with Montenegro on this one... their band are cuter... :o)

Last night I headed into town using my favourite method of transport; the DLR. It's the least stressful way to travel. I love it. Anyway... I met John at Tottenham Court Road station and we got the Northern Line to Tooting Broadway, and Bonnie's party.

Got there to find Natasha and her boyfriend, Sam (America), Meredith and their entourage of flatmates and friends. Elliot turned up and a rather good night was had by all. For once I barely noticed time passing as I chatted and laughed myself silly with Meredith. She's fun. Elliot is currently on my missing list, last seen on Bonnie's sofa on 11 March 2006. If anyone has seen him please comment! :o) Background at the party was provided by glow stick wearing people and some New Zealand lads with big arms... Perfect.

Managed to catch last DLR home by the skin of my teeth (origins of that phrase on a comment form please!)

Jim has pinched a movie projector from downstairs and I'm currently watching The Terminator in it's original glory on our living room wall. Seeing Arnie's 2 feet high pecs has really sold me on this projector... everyone should have one!



I cannot wait to watch the 2nd season finale of Battlestar... mmmm....

Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Terminator,

So over the last week or so I've been updating songs on my iPod. Mainly I've been counting the lost albums of old and downloading replacements for them. One of those, which finally finished downloading today, was the Manic Street Preachers "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours". It was one of my fave albums during my teenage depression and my fave song was "Black Dog On My Shoulder". I thought today I'd find out what it meant... see here "Winston Churchhill called his depression a "black dog", and that's where the song title came from." Interesting... and topical because of the current Churchill statue controversy

Nice when something fits so neatly...

Not since the end of the Cold War have nuclear weapons been so much at the forefront of the news. As George Bush tries to tell Iran it can't have nuclear weapons and making out this message doesn't conflict with his leniency with India, it becomes apparent we were rather naughty and helped Israel gain nuclear weapons.

Now before I go on I do just want to say I think India and Israel are fab and Iran stinks... but...

Isn't the case of Israel one of the reasons Iran feels the need to get nuclear weapons? I don't want to get into the rights and wrongs of Israel having these weapons. But I think it's unilateral decision to go nuclear certainly is now beginning to cause it's neighbours to consider their own deterrant.

In India we have a similar situation. Pakistan and India both have nuclear weapons. They are not the best of friends. Shouldn't Mr Bush have said... "Look Mr Singh it's time to talk. If you want domestic nuclear power on a larger scale we can help. But you are going to need to give up nuclear weapon construction and talk with Pakistan about doing the same. At the very least we want strigent rules and regulations regarding the use of the material we could trade with you." Instead he said "Hey Mr Singh, you're not a Muslim are you? How do you fancy having some nuclear material? Don't worry we won't ask too many questions about what you do with it". With Pakistan, India and China all in the club will it be that long before other South East Asian countries begin to worry and get their own nuclear research programmes? George Bush's mixed messages aren't going to help us stop this... if India's allowed them why not anyone else?

Wouldn't it all be simpler if Superman was real? Oh well.. Brandon Routh is close enough...

The morning walk along the South Bank between Charing Cross and work in Vauxhall is totally lovely. It was pouring with rain yesterday and I still loved it. I must be mad! This morning as I strode purposefully down the path, watching carefully for crazy joggers and bicycle riding loons, I spotted two Canada geese flying low over the water past the Palace of Westminster making the loud quacking sound geese make... and I couldn't have been happier. Beautiful.

Last night I went out to Tiger Tiger for work drinks paid for by our suppliers who sent a few big wigs down to keep us from buying too much alcohol. It wasn't as awful as I thought it'd be and there were a few funny moments that will stay with me... such as a gay American called Joe (hmm what is it with gay men with that name?) accosting poor innocent Paul and Scott. The word stereotypical was invented for Joe.

Now isn't the following picture of handsome Tom Welling quite lovely?



5 years ago today the heart of my family was ripped out when the nicest person in the world, my auntie Melly, passed away. She was only 27. Melly... you were the light of our lives, and without you being happy and having a laugh is just that much more difficult. I will always love you Melly.

OH MY GOD!

I just looked in a mirror while topless (calm down at the back!) . I have never been this fat. NEVER! Now normally I find people who obsess over their weight annoying, but hey it's me doing it now so it's ok. ;op

SOOOOOO... from tomorrow... I WILL walk to work from Waterloo station every day... and walk back again every evening. Maybe even go from Charing Cross. Yeah... Charing Cross. That'll do it. I miss walking, and I think I need to take it up again.

No more: cooked lunchs at work (take a sandwich or a salad!). No pain au chocolate for breakfast. NO PANCAKES ALA JIM. No chocolate fall stop. No takeaways. NO ALCOHOL (except for tomorrow night as goodbye drinks to drinking). Harsh but should be effective.

NO DIET COKE AT WORK. Now sure work may need to reconsider their current water arrangements should I switch... I can get through 2 - 3 litres of water in a working day.

Wish me luck... one svelte Jae coming up... after we've all oogled Ryan Carnes!

So Britain's Eurovision entry has been chosen... I am going to reserve judgement for now. Until I've heard it that is!!!!

So at Elliot's party on Saturday John happened to mention a Google video he had seen about a new game from the creator of The Sims.

Now little did I realise this was also a game I'd heard vague mutterings about on some blogs. The game is called Spore and it looks right up my street. I won't tell you too much about it (because Wikipedia does it so much better!!) other than to say I can not wait for this game to come out.

Jim has become a master pancake chef in the last couple of days cooking the most amazing American style pancakes. I'm truely in heaven!

OK.. this is post 983... only 17 till the big 1000!!!!! Ooo... can't wait!

And please visit my latest tenant... the more hits they get the happier I am!!

As I'm apt to do, I recently took a trip down memory lane. Using the Wayback Machine I went and read a little of my old posts on my old templates and by the Gods that was depressing! But more importantly, I saw my old blogrolls. What a graveyard they were.

I remember the "olden days of blogging", when things were new... before people started using ads on their blogs, before link exchanges, when the web ring was all powerful, and when blogs were interesting. I remember Mister Alan when he wrote in English, and Karen. I remember Somagod.net, True Porn Clerk Diaries, Closet Boy, Dusty, Just Like Heaven and Sister Mary Matthew and his school for wayward girls. And there's a little bit of me that misses them, and misses how blogging used to feel.

I'm not saying things now are "bad". Just different. You can't stop change. It just amazes me to remember a time before the war in Iraq and the culture wars, before dull blogs about "1000 Ways To Boost Your Self Esteem" and "My Blog About Tractor Marketing", and before spyware pop ups (I'm looking at you PoetX!). Blogs used to be so blunt, raw, and personal. You really used to get a feel for who someone was... there aren't many blogs in my blogroll that remind me of that time. But hey there's a few.

So in memory of those who have gone before I pledge...

1)I shall never allow commercial adverts here
2) I will blog as long as I am able
3) To strive to find blogs as funny as Mister Alan and Sister Mary Matthew, as touching as Dusty, as well written as True Porn Clerk Diaries and as sexy as Somagod.

And now here's some blasts from the past...

Blue Roses
Ari
Deb

If anyone has any info on the whereabouts of the missing (and Gregita) let me know!!!

So say I after reading Lowri Turners recent recent news paper article. I actually saw this story in the Gay Times but Garibaldi Gay reminded me about it. The crux of her argument is:

Under the headline "However much I love my gay friends, I don't want them running the country', she said: "Frankly I don't trust a man who says he swings both ways, unless he is a spotty teenager who hasn't sorted himself out yet.

"Oaten is 41 and Hughes is 54. If they think they are old enough to run the country then surely they are old enough to work out which gender they fancy?

"Those who claim to be bisexual are simply trying to fudge the truth."

Later in the column, Ms Turner said gay men did not make good party leaders because they did not face the same challenges as those who had children, adding: "I have gay friends whose biggest headache is whether to have a black sofa or a cream one."

Gay men aren't parents?? Oh Ms Turner YOU ARE AN IDIOT. There are plenty of gay parents. I know quite a few. I go out with a man who has 4 kids. But I suppose that fudges the crux of my argument which is... you're gay friends sound bloody boring.

Ok the real point of my argument is she is just replaying part of the whole parental cult thing; you haven't lived until you've had a child etc. Well here's what I say to that: maybe not having children gives you a more level perspective on the issues of child care and education, a different but useful view that might lead to some useful changes. Let's face it... having parents run the country hasn't exactly done much good for our education system.

I hate the parental cult. Will people please note that having children does not make you any better than people without children. It just makes you different.

OK... yesterday was Jae's Lewisham day. Had lunch at Yate's in Lewisham yesterday with Jim, then went out to Elliot's in Ladywell for his flat warming party. Twas cool to see him and John.

Ever since the Wheatsheaf changed hands a few weeks back lunchs have lost their charm... our choices were the newly expensive Wheatsheaf (with awful service), Wyvils with it's interesting (not in the good way) food, and even more interesting staff (ditto), Kennington Cafe which is yummy but very basic and bland or one of the many lesser places which suffer from either bad service or bad food. But today, finally a new place has entered our lunch time retinue... The Rose.

This pub, just by the Thames, has fast service, excellent food, pleasant (and rather cool) surroundings and the best looking bar man I've seen in some time!! Sure it's a little expensive but it's worth it.

As Sir Menzies Campbell prepares to address the troops I'll give you my thoughts on his leadership... he looks the part, he brings a sense of maturity that Blair and Cameron can't match, he is a safe pair of hands for the party as it tries to find out what it's all about and his principled stand against the Iraq war can only pay dividends in the future (even if I don't agree with him). Not my first choice, but then Dolph Lungdren wasn't available. I look forward to hearing his plans.

Yes people it's Friday!! I hope to be going to Elliot's housewarming tomorrow. And Paul's got a new blog. Visit him... oh and visit my current new tenant or I'll never post another picture again! ;op

I can't remember where I got this pic from so sorry to whomever. But mmm...

I went out last night to the Lavender for Sam Americas "See you soon" drinking session. I may have drunk too much. I may have hugged too much. I may have called my boss "hun".

I'm sure there's a nymphomaniac working platform two of Greenwich station. He has a dog and when I get the late train home once or twice a week I spot him meeting a man... a different one each time. I've occassionally caught snippets of conversation like "Hi I'm *name witheld because I'm nice like that*". They both always have that "I'm gonna be getting jiggy with it soon" feel. Hmm.. good on him I say. I wonder if any of the other sheep like commuters notice this little bit of post gaydar gay life playing out in front of them.

I know my blogs been down. Sorry! I think it's fixed but I've logged a query with Blogger just in case. Cheers Kev for letting me know!!

Blogmad launched today.

As anyone who has ever read through my archives will know I used to work for a hotel named Faulty Towers; it lived up to the reputation of it's namesake! Well I was watching Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares last night about Sandgate Hotel (Sandgate being one part of the urban sprawl of Folkestone and Hythe). God it was like travelling back in time...

The music from Fawlty Towers was played throughout the programme as staff used walkie talkies to communicate (Faulty Towers did that too!), the owners were a completely inexperienced couple (check), most of the staff used the bar (check), and the chef was slightly mad (check). It just looked so amatuerish... just like this blogs namesake... I think Folkestonians have lost the ability to run a hotel properly...

OK... my vote for most beautiful man of the decade goes to...



HUBBA HUBBA...

Yoinked from Male and Beautiful